Highly successful people swear by this rule when they feel overwhelmed

I’ve spent my entire career, as both an author and entrepreneur, studying how successful people work.

Many of us are taught to believe that we should always put 100% effort into everything we do. But while researching for my ninth book, “Time Anxiety,” I learned how damaging this mentality can be.

Doing less than your best may sound counterintuitive, especially if you grew up feeling pressured to get good grades and finish in first place in competitive activities.

But the most successful people know that it can actually be better for them in the long run to do significantly less, or just good enough.

I first learned of this concept from a viral thread by Heron Greenesmith, a policy attorney and advocate for LGBTQ rights. Here’s how they put it:

“Art? Do it poorly. School work? Do half rather than not doing it at all. Calling a friend? Text them if you’re afraid to call rather than not talking to them at all. Parenting? Literally just be there, even if you’re half asleep and on your phone.”

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Being a perfectionist is not always something to be proud of. Perfectionism is based on a belief system that can limit all kinds of important skills, such as the ability to complete simple tasks and move on or the ability to feel any sense of accomplishment.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, taking action is better than not taking action. It can help you move into a better place, so that you’re then able to make different choices next time.

Here are a few examples of how to use this method:

• Problem: You struggle to complete classwork. 
  Solution: Lower your standards. Turn in work that is less than amazing, and use the extra time to do something else. You don’t need perfect grades in every class.

• Problem: Your living space feels messy, but you’re exhausted. 
  Solution: Identify what really needs to be cleaned up. Do as much as you can (for those things only) for ten minutes. Once the time is up, stop cleaning and move on.

• Problem: You’re burdened with a huge pile of unread messages. 
  Solution: Delete all unread messages and start over. Instead of flailing about and trying to catch up, just try to do a better job with new messages going forward, at least for a while.

• Problem: You haven’t returned a phone call. 
  Solution: It happens. Don’t worry about it. You can always resume the conversation later if it’s important.

Not everything requires a full level of engagement. Instead, figure out the minimally acceptable solution for whatever you’re stuck on, then move on to bigger things. 

Doing things poorly might also allow you to focus on the few things that really matter, perhaps doing an even better job with those. When in doubt, let go and move on.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of “The $100 Startup,” “Side Hustle,” and “The Happiness of Pursuit,” which have sold over one million copies worldwide. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday.

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